Regional unions are shaping up to be a deciding force in Pittsburgh’s mayoral race — and more

Technical.ly partnered with PublicSource to explore the landscape of work in Pittsburgh — famed for its industriousness and intense union-management conflict and collaboration — as it is pressure-tested by changes in governmental policy, technology and economics.

After 40 years of relative union-management peace in Southwestern Pennsylvania, organized labor faces a presidential administration that’s generally viewed as bad tidings for organizers and workers rights advocates. Locally, though, labor is distributed throughout the power structure, with representation on key boards, close allies in places like the mayor’s office  and even ties to development interests.

Darrin Kelly, who leads the Allegheny/Fayette Central Labor Council, said the region’s labor strength comes from cooperating with business leaders and other interested regional parties.

“When you look at the board structures of every board in the city and county, they’re made up of labor and elected officials, business leaders, nonprofits and community leaders,” Kelly said. “Pretty much every board has that. That symbolizes everybody has a voice and that includes labor. Labor has always been part of the conversation.”

This year, President Donald Trump seeks to reshape the National Labor Relations Board and assail workforce diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts. Unions have been in court fighting largely unsuccessfully to halt bids to shed tens of thousands of federal workers.  Here in Pittsburgh,  a tight mayor’s race shows signs of splitting local unions.

Union leaders say they can protect efforts in place in and around Pittsburgh despite the federal mood shift.

“We have a cohesive structure,” said Jamey Noland, a principal at PenTrust, which helps to invest union pension fund money in development deals. “Here more so than others we’re in a better position to weather the political storm upcoming.”

Locally, labor is on board

Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey’s chief operating and administrative officer is Lisa Frank, a former Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Healthcare executive vice president. His former communications director, Maria Montaño also joined the administration from SEIU — the largest healthcare union in North America with more than 1.1 million reported members.  

Part of her role in the administration includes bargaining city contracts with various entities like the police force and firefighters. 

“We have not been sitting across the table as though they’re our enemies,” Frank said. “We’ve been able to do some innovative things.”

For Frank, the policies that unions advocate for, like having weekends off, higher wages and job security, are what create a functioning society. 

Looking at the new presidential administration, Frank said, “The attack on organized labor from the right wing is not only or primarily about the nuts and bolts of a contract, it’s about decimating powerful political opposition to the right-wing agenda.”

Frank said that the Gainey administration recognizes the important role organized labor plays.

It has continued the tradition, shared with the county, of having one union member on the board of most major appointed government boards.

• Kelly serves on the board of Allegheny County Sanitary Authority (ALCOSAN), the regional sewer agency that is in the midst of a multi-billion-dollar infrastructure project. 
• Sam Williamson, a vice president for SEIU 32BJ representing building service workers in Pennsylvania, Delaware and Kentucky, serves as a board member for the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA), which is tasked with increasing economic activity using public funds.  
• Jason Markovich sits on the board of the Redevelopment Authority of Allegheny County and is a member of the Construction General Laborers’ Union Local 373.
• Steve Mazza serves on the City Planning Commission, is a Pittsburgh Land Bank board member and chairs the Board of License and Inspection Review. The latter considers appeals regarding business licensing and code enforcement decisions made by the Department of Permits, Licenses and Inspections. He is the recording secretary for Carpenters Union Local 142 and council representative for the KML Regional Council of Carpenters. 
• Michael Dunleavy is the vice chair of the Sports & Exhibition Authority’s board. Dunleavy also served as the business manager/financial secretary of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Union Local 5. He retired from this position in 2021. 
• Patrick Bigley is a member of the city’s Ethics Review Board and the president of Pittsburgh Plumbers Union Local 27. 
• Thomas McIntyre is a board member of the Allegheny County Airport Authority and replaced Dunleavy as the business manager/financial secretary of IBEW Local 5.

Kelly said that the region’s elected officials, who are often in charge of appointing board members, understand the importance of making sure that “working families have a spot at every table.” 

What the unions get out of it 

“It’s very important for labor to be represented in URA board meeting rooms or authority boards where decisions about public resources are being made,” Williamson said.

“The last few years I’ve been there, the focus has increased dramatically on housing affordability.”

Williamson said this involved pushing developers seeking URA funding to include affordable housing. Once a building is constructed, Williamson said the emphasis becomes encouraging the property owner to hire organized labor for roles including cleaning. 

“We have a prevailing wage policy and that’s a service worker prevailing wage policy that extends to URA-funded projects and URA contracts,” he said. “We now represent the cleaners in Bakery Square, and they get paid prevailing wage.”

Williamson points to Esplanade, a private development in Chateau expected to cost $740 million, as an example of how expectations have shifted for private developers. 

“Esplanade, it hasn’t been built yet but it’s a good barometer for how the expectations have shifted for developers,” Williamson said. “For the Esplanade, the company is pledging 20% affordability [on housing units]. They’re going to use union contractors for construction and property work.” 

But they’re not always in lockstep 

While Williamson has supported affordable housing alongside Gainey administration officials on the URA board, another mayoral housing priority failed to win over a different union’s board representative.

Gainey’s proposed citywide inclusionary zoning overlay would require developers of larger projects to put aside a certain number of units for low-income households. It came before the City Planning Commission, along with a rival plan by Councilman Bob Charland that would have imposed less stringent affordability standards, on Jan. 28.

The commission voted against recommending Charland’s bill, with Mazza as the lone supporter of the councilman’s approach.

Mazza abstained from voting on Gainey’s version of inclusionary zoning to city council.

Leading up to the vote on Gainey’s measure, Mazza said that if mandatory inclusionary zoning passed it would hurt his industry by slowing down development. He also expressed concern with other aspects of Gainey’s proposal.

“Honestly I don’t think it should happen all over the city,” he said about inclusionary zoning. “I still have questions. I’m still concerned.”

Other industry voices have similar concerns.

“The political game of affordable housing is something we’ve been watching closely,” said Noland, a former energy industry consultant now working with unions. “There’s economics 101 supply and demand involved here.”

Noland said rents are dictated by construction costs.

“So if I put $50 million in a building with 250 units, I have to charge on average $2,200 [monthly] per unit in order to make the project work,” he said. “When you start putting stipulations on what I can charge and how I can charge it changes that.”

Construction costs don’t include a “discount for doing affordable housing,” Noland said.  

Union support is now splintered between Gainey and his most prominent mayoral contender, Allegheny County Controller Corey O’Connor. 

On a recent February morning, the challenger received the endorsements of several trade unions, whose representatives cited concerns with slowing development activity and job creation.  

“We backed Gainey in 2021. We took a chance on him. For the past three years, his campaign promises fell to the wayside,” said Brian Herbinko, business manager of International Union of Painters and Allied Trades Local 57. “Everything this administration has done has been too little too late. We cannot continue down a path of losing jobs.” 

The United Steelworkers endorsed Gainey’s reelection campaign, and SEIU has contributed to his war chest.

A union of developers and building trades

Contrary to the image of organized labor battling gilded-era robber barons, unions today play a major role investing in developments like Bakery Square through PenTrust. 

Noland said the organization, which now claims $600 million in real estate investments in the tri-state region, started in 1987 when unions in the area approached a mortgage bank to create a trust with $7 million in pension funds that would be used to invest in development and to promote using union labor for those projects.

“At the time, union labor was not thriving in this region,” said Noland, whose father started the trust. “Over time, the fund grew and 37 years later we’re more substantive.” 

Noland said that one of PenTrust’s successes came through supporting the Cork Factory lofts in the Strip District. In total, Noland said about 18 properties in the Strip District have received PenTrust’s support in the last 25 years. He counted around 30 assets in the organization’s portfolio in Allegheny, Beaver and Butler counties.

In exchange for funding, said Noland, “We want to have some kind of labor component. … Our work is completed with 100% union labor. So when you build from the ground up, it all has to be done with union labor.”

With union labor comes a premium of about 6% to 8% over non-union labor, Noland said, but he argues the premium guarantees high-quality work. 

“The skill level of union labor is going to be higher,” Noland said. “All of our projects are almost always on time. The unions deliver. They know that their pension fund is aligned with this project. They don’t want these projects to go over.”

Trump’s currents meet entrenched union involvement 

The Trump administration’s labor moves haven’t pleased, nor deterred, union leader Kelly.

“What we’re seeing right now we don’t like,” Kelly said. “No matter where it happens or who is in elected office here or DC, our message and our commitment doesn’t change and we will do everything to protect labor rights.”

“We’ve been here for generations,” Kelly said. “It’s important for any elected official to make sure labor voices are heard.”

Kelly pointed to the recent examples of Coffee Tree Roasters and La Prima Espresso Co. unionizing their workforces as evidence of growing organized labor. 

“We make sure we purchase our coffee and donuts from a place like that,” he said. “You take care of companies that take care of labor.”

For many, unions are synonymous with labor unrest and strikes. Locally, you don’t have to look further than Homestead, which witnessed one of the nation’s most notable and violent strikes between an iron and steel workers union and Andrew Carnegie.

Kelly said such confrontations in this region don’t often happen anymore “because labor is committed to this region and working hard.

“We will stand strong with our members no matter what happens but we’re committed to being partners with elected officials and business partners.”